In an effort to cut through today’s imperfect digital application process, and more specifically the 350,000+ submissions that Spotify receives annually, I created the “Love Letters to Spotify” campaign. Incorporating references to some of their recent brand campaigns and ensuring that I was simultaneously delivering value to Spotify, I chose to feature lyrics from songs discovered on their curated playlists and turn them into OOH love letters. Over the course of one week I posted the creative in the surrounding areas of their New York offices and on an Instagram account created for this campaign, ensuring the guerrilla media had a digital compliment offering more context about my intention.
While I never heard directly from Spotify, the campaign didn’t go unnoticed, initially being featured on Moneyish and then being picked up by The New York Post.
To add another layer of visual and conceptual depth to the campaign there was a secondary message hidden behind the featured lyrics which was revealed in full once the final post had been pushed live. By rotating a smart phone 180 degrees when viewing the Instagram profile the subtle letters spelled out, “I WANT U 2 WANT ME”, which is an abbreviated presentation of the famous Cheap Trick lyrics, a bit of a cheap, or playful, trick, and also my final message to Spotify.
The graphic nature of the large, semi-transparent serif typography used in the background provided some needed texture to the designs while also offering a clue that there was more to this campaign. The non-repeating gradient made for bright creative that would help the posters pop on city streets and simultaneously indicate that the designs were never repeating, but instead new every day.
While it was important that I remain anonymous through the campaign, primarily for legal reasons, I wanted to share a piece of information about myself in the final piece of creative(above and left). This would be the only one that didn’t feature song lyrics, instead using the title of a Stevie Wonder song as my sign off – “Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours.”
